Published 4:00 am, Thursday, April 9, 1998

Maybe it's all the negative press the network got for its recent Winter Olympics work, which ranged from mediocre to infuriating. Maybe it's the annual implication that entertaining analyst Gary McCord isn't

welcome at the tournament because of pressure on CBS by Augusta officials.

But mostly, CBS is irked that every year, it's an issue that the Eye only covers the final two rounds and that coverage doesn't include all 18 holes.

"You guys need to ask better questions!" the omnipresent Jim Nantz barked at reporters on a conference call this week. "You need to ask about storylines!"

Nantz -- the Olympics, Final Four and Masters host -- has a point. CBS' Masters broadcast was the best sporting event on TV last year. The network did a terrific job. The ratings were massive. It's kind of hard to find fault with that.

And when the Masters is on, it's on. Only four minutes of commercials interrupt play each hour, an unbelievably tiny amount for such a ratings cow. Most broadcasts average 12 to 14 minutes of commercials per hour.

"We're showing more golf shots than we do during our PGA coverage -- which is 18-hole coverage," Nantz said.

Storylines are fairly slim, however. There's Tiger, and then there's Tiger. TigerTigerTigerTiger. Nantz and analyst Ken Venturi threw out Jack Nicklaus ("You can't bet on him, but you can't bet against him!"), Greg Norman ("He's on a mission and nobody is giving him the time of day") and the surge of 20-something golfers not named Tiger as possible alternate themes, but no one was buying it.

There will be no avoiding the Tiger Woods element 56 minutes per hour -- and probably in most of the commercials, as well.

At least there's no Tiger infomercial, as there was last year when a glowing (non-CBS produced) Woods bio aired during Masters weekend. Instead, following the growing trend of "classic sports," CBS is showing "Hogan vs. Snead Revisited," a match between golf greats Ben Hogan and Sam Snead from 1964.

"If you're a golf fan, you won't believe some of the footage you're going to see," Nantz said. "It's unbelievable."

"Hogan vs. Snead" airs Sunday at noon on KPIX (Channel 5); Saturday's coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. and Sunday's final round starts at 1 p.m. USA will provide coverage today and tomorrow from 1 to 3:30 p.m., and CBS will air highlights both days after the 10 p.m. news.

SILEO SILLINESS: In one of the strangest bits yet on "The Ticket" (1050 AM), the afternoon show "Ebony and Ivory" joked this week that host Dan Sileo had accepted a job at a Sacramento TV station, eliciting floods of goodbye calls from listeners. Sileo is under consideration for a TV job, but has not been offered one, according to Darren Chan, The Ticket's program director.

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Gosh, how hilarious.

Actually, Sileo is probably best suited to TV, where he can put his big personality to use and, reined in by a script, won't have to worry about those pesky facts. And best of all, the talented Rod Brooks could go back to doing a solo show.

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